Normal Breathing Sends Saliva Droplets 7 Feet; Masks Shorten This
The WHO and the CDC recommend keeping a certain distance between people to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These social distancing recommendations are estimated from a variety of studies, but further research about the precise mechanism of virus transport is still needed. In Physics of Fluids, researchers demonstrate normal breathing indoors without a mask can transport saliva droplets capable of carrying virus particles to a distance of 2.2 meters in a matter of 90 seconds.
Measuring Sound Diversity of Quietness
The world is filled with myriad sounds that can overwhelm a person with relentless acoustics. Noise is so prevalent in everyday life that the concept and achievement of comfortable quiet is hard to define. During the 180th ASA Meeting, Aggelos Tsaligopoulos from the University of the Aegean will describe how quiet could be measured in the hopes of better understanding its impact on people. The session, "Towards a new understanding of the concept of quietness," will take place Wednesday, June 9.
Physicists Achieve Significant Improvement in Spotting Accelerator-produced Neutrinos in a Cosmic Haystack
Scientists demonstrate how ground-breaking image reconstruction and analysis algorithms filter out cosmic ray tracks in the MicroBooNE neutrino detector to pinpoint elusive neutrino interactions with unprecedented clarity.
Key to Cleaner Combustion? Look to the Stars
In a decade-long quest, scientists at Berkeley Lab, the University of Hawaii, and Florida International University uncover new clues to the origins of the universe - and land new chemistry for cleaner combustion engines
Scientists create unique instrument to probe the most extreme matter on Earth
PPPL develops novel X-ray crystal spectrometer to measure high energy density plasmas in the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Laser-focused on Supercooled Water
PNNL's infrared pulsed heating technique reveals supercooled water's weird behavior; opens door to other fluid studies at new Energy Sciences Center.
How coronavirus aerosols travel through our lungs
When we inhale isolated coronavirus particles, more than 65% reach the deepest region of our lungs where damage to cells can lead to low blood oxygen levels, new research has discovered, and more of these aerosols reach the right lung than the left.
A quantum step to a heat switch with no moving parts
Researchers have discovered a new electronic property at the frontier between the thermal and quantum sciences in a specially engineered metal alloy - and in the process identified a promising material for future devices that could turn heat on and off with the application of a magnetic "switch."
New COVID-19 Model Reveals Effectiveness of Travel Restrictions
More strategic and coordinated travel restrictions likely could have reduced the spread of COVID-19 in the early stages of the pandemic. That's according to new research published in Communications Physics. This finding stems from new modeling conducted by a multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Lighting Up Ultrafast Magnetism in a Metal Oxide
Scientists studied what happens when very short pulses of laser light strike a magnetic material. Understanding how magnetic correlations change over short timescales is the first step in being able to control magnetism for applications.
Wayne State physics professor awarded DOE Early Career Research Program grant
Chun Shen, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics and astronomy in Wayne State University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was awarded a five-year, $750,000 award from the U.S. Department of Energy's Early Career Research Program for his project, "Quantitative Characterization of Emerging Quark-Gluon Plasma Properties with Dynamical Fluctuations and Small Systems."
Physicist Dan Boyer wins Early Career Award for research in Artificial Intelligence methods to advance fusion energy
Dan Boyer of PPPL receives DOE Early Career Award to accelerate predictive models of spherical tokamak plasmas with machine learning methods.
Smashing gold with finesse: Shockless compression experiments at the National Ignition Facility establish new terapascal pressure scales
An international team of researchers, including scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Hyogo, have used the world's most energetic laser - LLNL's National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore, California - and the world's most powerful pulsed-power facility - Sandia's Z Machine in Albuquerque, New Mexico - to compress gold and platinum compress to 1 terapascal, deriving new pressure scales.
SLAC's Panofsky fellows talk about what makes their research so exciting
Among the many scientists who push the frontiers of knowledge at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the Panofsky fellows stand out.
Advanced Photon Source helps reveal how antibodies bind a molecule linked to cancer
Researchers have developed antibodies that can bind to phosphohistidine, an unstable molecule that's linked to cancer. To learn how the two bind together, the team turned to the powerful X-rays at Argonne's Advanced Photon Source. These new insights into its structure will help scientists design better antibodies for potential treatments.
Intern talks about his upcoming summer of research and fusion energy with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm
An intern about to start a Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) at PPPL and another University of Texas-Dallas student kicked off their summer with a friendly online chat with U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm about their plans for the summer.
Decontaminating N95 masks for reuse
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have determined that heating N95 respirators up to 75 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes deactivates a surrogate coronavirus without compromising the device's fit and its ability to filter airborne particles.
DNA-based material with tunable properties
While DNA is often idealised as the molecule of life, it is also a highly sophisticated polymer that can be used for next-generation materials. Beyond the fact that it can store information, further fascinating aspects of DNA are its geometric and topological properties, such as knotting and super-coiling. Indeed, very much like a twisted telephone cord, DNA is often found coiled up inside bacteria and other cells and even knotted in viruses.
Engineered defects in crystalline material boosts electrical performance
Researchers have discovered that engineering one-dimensional line defects into certain materials can increase their electrical performance.
Scientists Earn Early Career Awards
The DOE Early Career Research Program supports exceptional researchers during the crucial early years of their careers and helps advance scientific discovery in fundamental sciences
Three Los Alamos scientists honored by American Nuclear Society
Mark B. Chadwick, chief scientist and chief operating officer of Weapons Physics, and Stuart A. Maloy, deputy group leader for Materials Science at Radiation and Dynamic Extremes, were named fellows, while D.V. Rao, program director for the Laboratory's Civilian Nuclear Program, earned a special award for making advanced nuclear energy systems a reality.
DOE names six Argonne scientists to receive Early Career Research Program awards
Six Argonne scientists receive Department of Energy's Early Career Research Program Awards.
Shiny mega-crystals that build themselves
An international team led by Empa and ETH Zurich researchers is playing with shape-engineered nanoscale building blocks that are up to 100-times larger than atoms and ions. And although these nano "Lego bricks" interact with each other with forces vastly different and much weaker than those holding atoms and ions together, they form crystals all by themselves, the structures of which resemble the ones of natural minerals. These new mega-crystals or superlattices that are depicted on the cover of the latest issue of "Nature" exhibit unique properties such as superfluorescence - and may well usher in a new era in materials science
Unveiling what governs crystal growth
Crystals are wonders of nature and science with important applications in electronics and optics. Scientists from Argonne have new insights into how gallium nitride crystals grow. Gallium nitride crystals are in wide use in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and may form transistors for high-power switching electronics to make electric grids more energy efficient and smarter.
Precise Measurement of Pions Confirms Understanding of Fundamental Symmetry
Scientific rules about "chiral symmetry" predict the existence of subatomic particles called pions. The lifetime of a neutrally charged pion is tied to breaking of chiral symmetry. Until recently, measurements of this lifetime have been much less precise than calculations from theory. Physicists have now measured a pion's lifetime more precisely than ever before.